Family Gone Gluten Free - Husband Gets Sick From gluten-free Food!

[blmoreschi]

This may sound crazy, but my husband seems to be getting episodic diarrhea since we have gone (mostly) gluten free in our house. Our 11 year old was diagnosed 2  months ago, and the rest of the house is gluten free except for some leftover boxes of cereal (and we're really careful with the crumbs/dust from that). My husband, older daughter and I all eat gluten out of the house. We have all been tested for antibodies and all are clear (my husband and older daughter scored less than 1 on all the tests - I definitely think it comes from my side of the family - my scores were in the 11 to 13 range).

 

We are trying to figure out WHAT in the gluten-free foods is giving him a problem. We don't have a lot of gluten-free baked goods on a regular basis, but today he had 2 muffins for brunch (made from King Arthur Flour mix) and a piece of rhubarb-strawberry pie tonight (made with Whole Foods crust). He eats Udi's bread with no apparent problems. We wrote down EVERYTHING he ate today, and will do that again the next time he has the problem so we can try to isolate it. But I thought I would ask the question here in case anyone else has been through the same thing and knows what might be causing the problem. He said he often gets queasy after eating "some" gluten-free foods (substitute food, not naturally gluten-free food) but about 4 times now he has gotten a stomach ache and then had one episode of diarrhea and then is fine.

 

I'm wondering about the Xanthum gum. Any ideas??  Thanks!

[psawyer]

I'm wondering about the Xanthum gum.

This would not be the first case of someone having trouble with xanthan gum. It is usually derived from corn, so it may be a sign of issues with corn. Try eliminating it (I know it is hard) for a week or so, and see if things improve. Then add it back, and if problems reappear, you will know.

[blmoreschi]

Should we eliminate corn, or just the xantham gum? He's never shown any sensitivity to food before, and Xantham gum is really the only new ingredient in his diet. Thanks for the response - I also just found another source online that listed bloating, cramping and diarrhea as the symptoms of xantham gum sensitivity - i think that must be the problem.

[psawyer]

For starters, eliminate the xanthan gum. If there turns out to be a problem with it, then you may want to investigate corn. But there are many who have trouble with xanthan gum that don't have any problems with corn.

[kareng]

I agree with Peter. Xantham gum is in a few mainstream products but not many. It's in all the gluten-free baked foods, so maybe that's it. Don't eat it for a while then try it and see.

[Celiac Mindwarp]

I had a similar problem reacting to processed gluten-free foods.

I wondered about corn, xanthan gum, soy, plus they often have extra sugar, salt and fats.

Maybe you could try homebaking where you are in control and there are less weird ingredients.

Good luck, it is great everyone is so supportive in your home

[nvsmom]

Is it possible that normal baked goods were actually slowing his digestion down? I'm one who had issues with C my entire life and I thought my C was normal. When my BM's normalized, I thought I was getting D... Could he have a gluten sensitivity?  Just a thought.